In the afternoon after school, I decided to do a little wood working and create my owe suet feeder, in hopes of luring in the local pileated woodpeckers, (although an acorn or a hairy woodpecker would be nice too) to partake in a little suet.

First I needed wood (easy to find in the woods), and a fully charged Makita with a 3/4 inch spade drill bit. Done and done!

Laying in the corner of my cabin was a two foot length of wooden pole. Looks like I didn’t have to go to the woods to find wood after all. Not sure what my dad bought this for and what purpose it originally served, but now it was to find it’s second life as a bird feeder.

I first drilled a hole through the top of the pole in order to put some rope to hang the feeder. I then drilled five holes, about one inch in depth, at 90 degrees from each other, along the length of the pole.

Now came the really messy part: I stuffed the holes with suet. Suet is like the blood on Lady Macbeth’s hand, impossible to wash off. “Out, damned suet! out, I say!” Once I had plugged the holes with bird candy, I hung it up and now it was a matter of waiting. Which would be the first customer? My heart said, “Chestnut-backed chickadee” but my head said, “Steller’s jay”.

It’s turns out that chestnut-backed chickadee was the first visitor to the feeder, followed closely by Steller’s jay.

And at the time of writing, the elusive pileated woodpecker (or any woodpecker for that matter) has used the suet feeder. Oh well, the best laid plans. . .